Problems of Education in the 21st Century

877-878

Authors: Editorial Board

Cover page, Vol. 78, No. 6, 2020

881-883

Authors: Saša A. Horvat

Why complex problems are important in the modern teaching process? How to determine how complex a task or content is? The key to complexity lies in the origin of life. With the increase in complexity, from simple compounds, complex compounds were formed and from complex compounds life was formed. It is the same in teaching, by solving simple problems basic concepts are formed, and the growing complexity of the problem leads to the formation of knowledge. But as all started from simple and later everything got more complex in Praoceaa, can it be determined what the complex task is made of? What are the conditions that influenced the formation of life on Earth, what are the conditions that affect how the student experiences the complexity of the problem task? Does the assessment of a task have to take into account the subjective component or characteristics of the problem solver? Is there a difference between the complexity and difficulty of the problem?

907-919

Authors: Mariia Bilianska, Olga Yaroshenko

An important role in preventing the negative effects of human impact on the environment is played by environmental literacy, which is connected with developing the ability to use natural resources wisely and reduce waste as well as awareness of the role of the environment for safe and healthy living. The scientific studies on formation of students’ ecological literacy were analyzed. It was revealed that the current state of training future Biology teachers for developing students’ environmental literacy is not efficient. Ability of prospective Biology teachers to form students’ ecological literacy is identified by the unity of value, cognitive and procedural components. Theoretical substantiation of the technology of training future Biology teachers for increasing students’ ecological literacy is carried out. The peculiarity of the technological process is the study of the elective courses “Conducting Ecological Pedagogical Activities”, “Technologies of Environmental Education and Upbringing”, “Methods of Teaching Ecology”, use of interactive teaching methods, combination of training sessions, independent work, practical training, and control measures. Criteria for the formation of each component are students' attitude to the environment and its preservation, the level of knowledge acquisition, the level of mastery of the methods of developing school students’ environmental literacy. A three-level approach to evaluating the results was used. The average level of formation of each component dominated. During the experimental training, statistically significant positive changes in the formation of each component took place. This confirms the feasibility of further implementation of the technology.

933-947

Authors: Coral I. Hunt-Gómez, Macarena Navarro-Pablo

English Foreign Language (EFL) teachers need to be especially aware of their own articulatory errors and to manage strategies to overcome them. A specific corrective strategy using phonetic notation to destabilise the most recurrent articulatory errors to be applied to Spanish pre-service English Primary School teachers is presented. Firstly, the presence of incorrectly articulated sounds in a corpus of 238 minutes of recorded improvised production of 34 pre-service EFL teachers was identified. Incorrect articulations were classified in two groups, those that presented a higher frequency were classified as fossilised errors and those appearing only once were considered mistakes. A categorisation of the most frequent articulatory errors and their possible origins was offered. Errors were also examined attending the effect they posed on communication, if they hindered it, they were considered unintelligible. Results showed that more than 80% of fossilised incorrect articulations were perfectly understandable and did not disrupt communication. Even if these results can be considered positive, research shows that pronunciation highly influences the learning process of other skills, and that it affects learners in terms of confidence, social and work advancement. Therefore, to get rid of their own fossilised errors, future teachers need effective pronunciation skills training strategies. For that reason, a specific error corrective strategy based on phonetic notation and self-learning is proposed.

967-982

Authors: Kamil Arif Kırkıç, Büşra Demir

Children should have some essential characteristics to follow primary school education. Pre-schools prepare children for the first years of primary school by teaching them to attain the necessary skills. The main aim of this study was to explore the self-regulation skill levels of 4-6 age group students attending pre-school education institutions, according to various demographic variables. In this survey, a descriptive research method, one of the quantitative research methods, was used. The population is 10336 students who attend the public preschool education institutions in Küçükçekmece, İstanbul, and the sample consists of 203 students. The ‘Personal Information Form’ and the Development of the Self-Regulation Skills Scale for 4-6 Years Old Children (Teacher Form) were used in the research to collect data. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and t-test were implemented to analyze the data. In terms of findings of the research, when teachers consider the self-regulation skills of 4-6 years old students as sub-dimensions, they stated that they had “mostly” obstructive control sub-dimension, “mostly” and “always” had sub-dimension of working memory. In general, it can be said that the children participating in the research mostly had self-regulation skills. Although significant differences existed between the self-regulation skills of preschool students in terms of gender, age, and class size, no significant difference was found according to whether the mothers working in a job or not.

1000-1013

Authors: Beatrice Ngulube

Graduates with employability skills are considered as assets by employers because they are dynamic and adapt easily to today’s work environment. Thus, higher education globally is under pressure to produce graduates who are employable and able to continue learning and remain employed. This study examined the extent to which the undergraduate economics curriculum in South Africa equips economics graduates with employability skills. This was achieved through a qualitative approach using a content analysis design. Data analysed from advertisements extracted from the Sunday Times for four consecutive years and data from six undergraduate economics study guides indicated that there was a disjuncture between undergraduate economics skills and those required by the industry. The analysed study guides only cover about 29.4 % of the needed skills in the labour market. It is imperative for higher education institutions to produce employable graduates because evidence demonstrates that employers today do not hire employees solely based on academic qualifications. Recommendations are that there should be an alignment between employability skills required in the labour market and those offered by the academic institutions. Curricula and pedagogy should also be adjusted to enhance graduate skills outcomes.

1027-1037

Authors: Robert Podstawski, Krzysztof Borysławski, Marta Zurawik, Alena Bukova, Bojan Masanovic, Ferenc Ihasz, Miloš Marković, Aneta Omelan

The purpose of higher education is to produce active and intellectually well-rounded individuals yet, the transition to higher education seems to have deleterious effects on university and college students’ (UCS) fitness levels and physical activity (PA). The aim of this quantitative research was to analyse the influences of organisational factors on the implementation of physical education (PE) among UCS in European tertiary institutions. A purposive sampling method was employed. Seven academic peers gathered information on characteristics of tertiary institutions, sport and leisure facilities, types and characteristics of PA programs available for UCS in 66 European tertiary institutions. The results suggested that the curricula requirements for PE in public tertiary institutions were similar to private establishments, with minor administrative variations. Public tertiary institutions had significantly higher number of PE hours and PE sessions per semester, PE minutes per academic hour, duration of PE session, number PE teachers and number of students per one PE teacher. Universities had significantly higher number of PE semesters, PE minutes per academic hour, and hired more PE teachers. The organizational differences between public and private institutions might be explained by a lack of clear guidelines regarding PE curricula in higher education across European countries, and greater autonomy of the private tertiary institutions. Moreover, PA programs in higher education adhere to minimum requirements of the syllabi, which restrict total amounts of PE among UCS. Thus, it is recommended PE classes should become obligatory, with extended hours, appropriately qualified teachers and improved financing.

1058

Authors: Editorial Board

End page, Vol. 78, No. 6, 2020, PEC